A Pragmatic Approach On Translation

Cross-subject-transplanting is an important way to the development of science. The application of a new theory often makes a research worker's mind be suddenly enlightened. The history of the development of science proves that it is inevitable that one field touches upon the knowledge from many other areas. The studies of translation theory have been following a cross-subject-transplanting way since 1960s. They often turn for help to many other disciplines such as modern linguistics, psychology, communication theory, sociology, cognitive science, aesthetics, etc. These subjects analyze and expound translation from different points of view. They are of great benefit to translation.In reality, translation is interlingual communication so among these subjects concerned the closest relative one is linguistics. Pragmatics, a quite new field in linguistics, not only takes the meaning of signs into account but also considers more about their use. Nida thinks that translating means communicating. This thesis supports this view and considers translating as a communicative process which takes place within a social context. Pragmatic approach is a way to solve some questions on language use in translation.This paper consists of three chapters. The introduction discusses the significance of this subject and why the author has chosen this subject.Chapter one reviews some essential concepts and theories of pragmatics. If we definite pragmatics as the "the scientific study of how language is used", it may seems too summarized and abstract. So the author illustrates some other definitions so that we can get a more/specific and explicit comprehensiion of 'pragmatics'. Then the author exemplifies a very important concept 'context'. In the section three, speech acts theory is talked about, with the emphasis on the illocutionary act. At last, conversational implicature is reviewed. The author raises the questions: are target language receivers as able to infer unexpressed content as source language receivers? To what extent can the translator compensate for any deficit on the part of the target language receiver?Chapter two is mainly concerned about some issues and debates in translation circle. First, the circumscription of "translation" doesn't come to an agreement. The author lists various definitions of "translation", and furthermore clarifies the central concern of this thesis: translating as a communicative process which takes place within a social context. Pragmatics is the study of language use, so it should be very useful to translation.Chapter three mainly deals with the application of pragmatic theory to translation. At first, the section talks about the intended meaning and the interpreted meaning. It includes two parts - the comprehension of utterance and its translation; the comprehension of text and its translation. The second section lays emphasis on the role of cognitive context to understanding and translation, pointing out that the receivers of ST and TT readers within different cognitive context may infer different understanding of the same text. The translator should solve the problem properly. The fifth section explores translation and relevance. The sensitivity to the issue of relevance in text processing is a necessary part of the translator's skills. Translator should omit information which is deemed to be insufficient relevance to TT readers. In the next section, the author illustrates quality,II/relevance and the translation of irony. The flout of quality maxim suggests the speaker/writer want the hearer/reader to infer his/her implication. Successful translation will depend on whether or not TT readers can understand the implication with minimal extra processing effort. So, in all cases, recognition of ironic intention is crucial and will condition the translator's output. The last part deals with cultural differences and pragmatic translation. Different languages may have different culture. A pragmatic approach is a better way to get rid of...